Peer reviewers play a critical role in determining what innovation and rigor look like within their discipline, while maintaining the quality and integrity of published literature. We all benefit from this - no matter the field, location, or experience of the reviewer. Our Awards recognize that commitment. We celebrate the value the world’s top peer reviewers bring to peer review and to the advancement of scholarly communication.

We are celebrating the top 1% of reviewers in each of the 22 Essential Science Indicators (ESI) research areas. We are using the ESI categorization because these are broad research areas that align with the Web of Science, the leading citation index for scientific and scholarly research.

The Cross-field category is for the top 1% of reviewers in the Multidisciplinary ESI research area and reviewers who performed multiple reviews across different ESI research areas (reviews verifying the eligibility criteria, i.e. pre-publication reviews that were: performed for journals indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection at the time of calculation; performed between 1 September, 2018 and 31 August, 2019; and added to Publons before 31 August, 2019.)

We have updated the methodology for the Global Peer Review Awards to only count reviews and editorial records performed for journals indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. This change is intended to strike the best balance in promoting good research and publishing practices, as it ensures that every review and editorial record we count is from a curated collection of high-quality scholarly journals expertly selected for their editorial rigor, and published worldwide in over 250 science, social sciences, and humanities disciplines. (Click here to learn more about the Web of Science Core Collection selection criteria and process).

The ECR reviewer’s choice award will be hosted every 2 years and will return in 2020.